326 LEPIDOPTERA. 



whitish-green and with a very conspicuous greenish central 

 stripe containing a row of black blotches. Front edge of 

 second segment black. Head pale reddish-brown with the 

 face blackish, edged and marked with white. Legs dull 

 brown or pink. When young it loops very considerably in 

 walking. (0. Fenn.) 



A much paler form, even greenish- white blotched with 

 dull green, and showing faintly the usual markings, seems to 

 be somewhat common in the New Forest. In this variety, it 

 closely resembles the lichens growing on the trunks of trees 

 and bushes ; in its darker form its (likeness to a twig or to 

 the bark of a branch is quite as marked as in the twiglike 

 larvae of the Geomctridcc. The deception is very nearly 

 perfect in each case. 



April to the end of May or beginning of June on haw- 

 thorn, blackthorn, and apple, feeding at night, hiding in the 

 daytime on the bark of the branches, or close to the ground. 



Pupa soft, wrinkled, semitransparent, incisions well 

 defined ; anal extremity blunt, with a small protuberance. 

 Colour dull yellowish, incisions and dorsal shade pale brown. 

 Subterranean, in a hard oval cocoon of silk and earth. 

 (C. Fenn.) The larva lies rather long in the cocoon before 

 assuming the pupa state. 



The moth, though extremely beautiful in its colouring, 

 does not seem to be often visible in the daytime. It hides 

 itself in thick masses of herbage, or in bushes in hedges or 

 woods, or under overhanging masses of plants on a hedge 

 bank. At night it flies very softly in rather late dusk, and 

 is extremely susceptible to the attractions of sugar and ivy- 

 bloom, and even of blackberries in a hot autumn, settling 

 down so quietly that it may be taken with perfect ease in 

 the hand. 



It is plentiful in woods and lanes in the South of England, 

 though less so in Cornwall, and still inhabits the outskirts of 

 London ; also found, apparently, throughout England and 



